Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), awarded a Project Grant of $181,892 to Boston Children's Hospital on January 21, 2026, with completion targeted for September 28, 2028. This award funds a research initiative focused on metagenomic profiling of dust samples for school-based viral surveillance. The project will validate the use of viral sequencing of dust collected from elementary school classrooms to detect emerging viral strains earlier than traditional clinical sampling methods. The research leverages longitudinally collected dust samples (571 samples from 209 classrooms across 41 schools) originally gathered between 2015 and 2019 as part of the School Inner City Asthma Intervention Study (SICAS-2).

The primary deliverables include: (1) evaluation of early detection capabilities for emerging viral genomes through viral metagenomic sequencing and phylogenetic analysis comparing school dust samples to clinical genomes in national databases; and (2) development of predictive machine learning models to identify viral strains most likely to predict increases in school absenteeism. The project employs innovative hybrid-capture sequencing methodology to establish school-based environmental sampling as a viable surveillance approach for respiratory viral infections, with potential implications for public health monitoring and prevention strategies in pediatric populations.